Brussels, 12/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, on the sidelines of the General Affairs Council, the Dutch EU Presidency officially confirmed that the European Constitution will be signed on 20 October in Rome. According to diplomats, the Presidency foresees inviting the Heads of State and Government of the twenty-five EU Member States, accompanied by their foreign ministers, to a short but solemn ceremony.
Foreign ministers also briefly discussed on Monday the possibility of coordinating as far as possible the timetable of popular referendums to be held in a series of member countries before ratification of the Constitution. The hope - reiterated on Monday by many delegations - of seeing maximum coordination in the holding of referendums nonetheless stumbled against "political realism" insofar as referendums inevitably entail considerable national political implications and it will therefore not be possible to manage them at Community level. The United Kingdom, for example, clearly said on Monday that it was out of the question for the British referendum date to be decided in Brussels. Austria, which in the past had proposed holding a joint referendum, nonetheless recalled on Monday the need to ensure good coordination of the various processes and to ensure that the public debate effectively covers the Constitution and the future of the EU, and not internal policy issues. The Dutch Presidency recalled that it has already taken the initiative to circulate (within Coreper) a list of proposed referendum dates. The States concerned by referendums are invited to bear this in mind.
On Monday, EU European affairs ministers also spoke of this matter during a separate lunch, as well as the suggestion to create a group of well-known European personalities responsible for playing a positive and pro-European role in the process of ratification of the Constitution in the different Member States.